Watch: Seamus Coleman not done yet as Irish talisman sets the tone
STEELY FOCUS: Ireland leader Seamus Coleman. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho
You don’t write Seamus Coleman off. Heimir Hallgrimsson knows that now.
The Republic of Ireland manager admitted last week that he had been just plain wrong to leave the talismanic Donegal man out of his squad for the opening World Cup window last September, but it’s still a love affair that can’t and won’t last forever.
A parting of ways has only been postponed, for how long we don’t yet know.
It looked over in Budapest in November when, with an hour played and Ireland 2-1 down to Hungary, he gave way to Festy Ebosele. Coleman had turned 37 the month before. His minutes in the Premier League were still only in double digits for the season.
Ireland looked done, his Ireland career looked done, but he didn’t feel done.
“There was such a belief in the camp that week, it is hard to explain without being there, but there was such a belief that I fully believed we could get back into the game and create something. And when Troy [Parrott] got his second goal, I felt that if we scored in or around that time, I just felt that we could get back in that game.
“Nah, it never crossed my mind. I fully believed that the lads would get the job done, whether that was naïve of me or not, but it proved not to be. I thought they would get the job done and so they did. And it was a great night, great for our confidence, great for us as a team moving forward and it brings us to today.”
Coleman’s role as emotional bellwether for this Irish team is more finely-honed than ever. Like the preternaturally calm Hallgrimsson, he set the tone on Wednesday ahead of their World Cup playoff semi-final against the Czechs at the Fortuna Arena.
More than happy to look back over the glory and the giddiness of Budapest, he was just as sharp in pressing how “ultimately, it has to count for something”. He touched on all the difficult days this team has endured, and on the need to deliver more of the good ones.
If Ireland’s history in major playoffs has been mostly pain then Coleman and Robbie Brady have had the pleasure of 2015 when the latter’s goal against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Zenica fog set them on their way to Euro 2016.
They have shared these stories with the younger lads in the squad. Told them about what it is to play for their country on the big stage. How to approach this. Talk of putting down an ‘early marker’ here in Prague was countered by the need to keep clear heads.
A time will come to beat their chests and expel the nerves with shouts and roars. Maybe the words of Miroslav Koubek, the new Czech coach, will be thrown into the mix as they steel themselves for the raucousness and raw edge of the occasion.
Koubek, speaking last month, described Ireland as a typical “island” team, an “average” side. He also talked up an opponent that is dangerous and plays with enormous heart, but that’s the sort of fine print all too easily lost when someone is mining for extra motivation.
“I use everything as motivation,” said Coleman. “Would like to say I don’t, but I do. But, listen, we are really just focused on ourselves. We are in a good place as a team, we are in a good place as a squad, good place as a group and staff. We just want to focus on ourselves, doing our job correctly and taking on the information from the management and staff.
“Using the support of the nation and focusing completely on ourselves because when we do that, as you can see from games gone by, we use the confidence we have from that. We absolutely respect them and respect what they are saying, but we will focus on ourselves and the job at hand.”
The likelihood is that Coleman, as was the case in Budapest, will be on or near the Irish bench by the time this one comes to a head. The question is whether that end game is played after 90 minutes, 120 minutes or, god forbid, penalties.
The notion that anything could ever top Parrott’s third goal at the Puskas Arena for pure drama would be sorely tested if that came to pass, although in Caoimhín Kelleher Ireland have another of the strong and silent type to turn to.
The Brentford keeper has saved eight of 17 penalties faced in his senior career, including clubs and country. No-one will be more aware of all that than the Czech players who may have to stand 18 yards away from him with the weight of a World Cup on their shoulders.
“He’s proven himself to be one of the best penalty-stoppers in the game,” said Hallgrimsson. “Obviously it gives us confidence.” No-one better than Kelleher to keep calm, none better than Coleman to carry on.
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